We asked Democrats in red and purple districts: How will you win votes this election?

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear started his speech at the Democratic National Convention last week by talking about abortion rights as a matter of humanity and empathy — and as a winning issue for his re-election campaign.

“I beat Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell’s handpicked candidate by more than five percentage points,” he told the cheering crowd.

Beshear is an increasingly rare figure: a Democrat who holds statewide office in a state where politics is dominated by Republicans.

In Kentucky, Republicans have supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, and both U.S. Senate seats.

So Beshear’s political success in the state as a Democrat could be a useful example for the Harris-Walz campaign.

One of Donald Trump’s most common attacks on Kamala Harris is that she represents the most left-wing slice of America.

When you look at her history as a candidate, it is true that before she became vice president, Harris had only won elections in solidly blue, liberal places — to become San Francisco district attorney, then attorney general for the state of California, then a senator from California.

To win the White House, the Harris-Walz ticket will need to appeal to voters in purple, maybe even red areas. We asked Democrats who live in those areas: what could make that happen?

Democrats say it’s about showing up

Many delegates at the Democratic National Convention came to Chicago from more conservative parts of the country.

NPR asked them what they think Democrats need to do to reach voters where they’re from. Here's what a few of them said:

• Leah Midgarden of Minnesota: “It's so important for leaders to step up and say, 'Let's take a step back and let's recognize and take a moment to realize where we all have shared values.'"
• Ch